Hummingbird Cake

Rumor has it that this recipe was named the "hummingbird cake" because those who had a delicious slice spent the rest of their days happily humming.  It's a banana, pineapple, and walnut cake with layers of cream cheese buttercream icing.  What's not to love?

I actually made this cake for my birthday last month, but I'm just now getting around to posting it.  I adapted my recipe from the one that appears in Saveur.  The magazine indicates that this cake has its origins with Edna Lewis, an African American southern cooking extraordinaire from Virginia who lived most of her adult life in New York City.

My first piece of hummingbird cake was a magnificent experience at Maxie B's, a bakery in Greensboro, NC.  In honor of that fantastic Carolina cake shop, here's Ryan Adams singing "Oh My Sweet Carolina."  

Ingredients:
*Adapted from Saveur
Cake Batter:
--3 c. flour, + extra for flouring your cake pans
--1 tbsp. cinnamon
--1 tsp. baking soda
--pinch of salt
--3 tbsp. unsalted butter, + extra for buttering pans
--4 large eggs, beaten
--1 tbsp. vanilla extract
--1 c. crushed pineapple
--4 ripe bananas, mashed
--1 c. brown sugar
--1 1/2 c. granulated sugar
--1 c. finely chopped pecans
--1 c. canola oil

Icing:
--3/4 c. unsalted butter, chilled
--3 8-oz packages of cream cheese
--1 tbsp. vanilla extract
--1 vanilla bean, seeded
--2 3/4 c. confectioner's sugar
--1 c. chopped pecans (for sprinkling on top of the icing)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Butter Line two 9" or 10" round cake pans and dust with flour so that the flour covers all of the butter.  Gently tap out any excess flour.  Line the bottoms of the pans with parchment paper and set aside.

In a standing mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the eggs, brown sugar, granulated sugar, and vanilla until light and smooth.  Add the crushed pineapple, bananas, and canola oil.  Continue to beat until combined.  Sift in the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt.  Mix on low until combined.  At the end, add in the chopped pecans.

Divide your batter evenly between your two prepared cake pans.  Bake until a cake tester comes out clean, or about 55 minutes.  Allow the cakes to cool for 10 minutes, then remove them from the cake pans.  Set aside to continue cooling.  While the cakes are cooling, make your icing.

Clean your standing mixer.  With the paddle attachment, beat the butter for about 3 minutes, or until it's very smooth.  Add the cream cheese, vanilla, and vanilla bean seeds and beat for another 1-2 minutes.  Slowly add the confectioner's sugar on low speed until it's incorporated.  Then increase the speed to medium-high until the icing is firm but fluffy.

On a cake stand, place a small dollop of the icing and set the first cake on top (the icing will hold it in place).  Spread about 1/3 of the icing over the first cake layer, then generously sprinkle chopped pecans onto the icing.  Add the second cake layer on top.  Add another 1/3 of the icing and cover the cake completely, tops and sides.  With the remaining 1/3 of the icing, decorate the cake however you'd like.  I used an icing bag with a star tip.  Sprinkle remaining pecans all over the cake.

Serve!  And can I just say that this cake also makes for a delicious breakfast and coffee-time treat.

Duck Confit

The last time I saw Paris . . . I also saw a lot of duck confit.  Buttery, salty, tender, melt-in-your-mouth duck confit.  What is this delicious dish?  It's traditionally a duck quarter (leg and thigh) cooked and stored in its own rendered fat.  Yes, you read that right.  A very rich dinner, duck confit is easier to make at home than you might think.

One of the really tricky tasks for making duck confit is locating enough duck fat (and spending quite a lot of money on it!) to cover your duck quarters.  Thanks to the confit-ing genius Michael Ruhlman, I realized that I could have duck confit anytime by simply using olive oil instead of rendered duck fat in the cooking process.  You'll still need quite a bit of olive oil, but you can purchase it readily at any grocery store.

Plan ahead for making this dish: you'll need to start at least 3 days before you want to eat it.  The waiting time will give you more time to listen to "This Country's Going to War" from the most perfect film to complement a duck dish--the Marx Bros.' Duck Soup (in fact, you'll have time to watch the whole film more than once).  

Ingredients:

--4 duck quarters

--herbes de provence 

--a lotta salt

--about one quart olive oil

Day One:

Place duck quarters in an enamel cast iron pan and heavily salt them.  Sprinkle on herbes de provence with a heavy hand, and then rub in the herbs and salt.  (By the way, you can use any herbs you'd like.  Fresh rosemary and thyme would be great.)  Store covered in the fridge for at least 24 hours.

Day Two:

Preheat oven to 180 degrees F.

Rinse the duck legs in cold water to remove the herbs and salt.  Pat dry.  Repeat with the remaining duck quarters.  Place skin-side-up in the enamel cast iron pan and completely cover with olive oil. 

Bring to a simmer on the stove and then transfer, uncovered, to the oven.  Bake for approximately 10 hours, or until the oil has become clear and the duck legs are resting on the bottom of the pan (different chefs say anywhere between 6-12 hours, but I think 10 hours is just about perfect).

Allow to cool and then transfer--the whole cast iron pan and all--to the refrigerator.  Keep refrigerated in the oil, completely submerged, for at least 24 hours.  Here, the longer the better--you can make these up to 3-4 weeks before you're going to serve them since the oil acts as a preservation method.  But remember, at least 24 hours in the cooled fat before eating.

Day Three:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Remove duck quarters from the fat and scrape off remaining fat (it will have congealed around the meat).  Transfer to a baking dish, skin-side-up, and bake for about 20-25 minutes, or just until the skin is quite crispy.  Remove from oven and serve.  Ohmygod.  It's so delicious, and oh-so-easy.  

Banana Vegan Ice Cream

It's sort of a misnomer, but this "ice cream" is just as creamy and delicious as any made with dairy products.  And it's shockingly simple.  Do you have a large food processor?  Do you have a freezer?  With some day-old bananas, you can create a healthy dessert.  At the risk of sounding scientifically naive, the transformation is like magic!

Now, I added some extra ingredients to mine for a take on "bananas foster," including rum, cinnamon, brown sugar, and toasted pecans.  You can get creative and mix your banana "ice cream" with any number of add-ons.  Some ideas include: Nutella, peanut butter, honey, dark chocolate chips . . .

I always think about the song I'm about to give you in connection to Billy Wilder's 1954 film Sabrina.  In that gem of postwar cinema, Audrey Hepburn sings a quirky version of Spike Jones's already playful "Yes, We Have No Bananas!"

Ingredients:
--4 very ripe bananas, chopped and frozen (overnight)
--2 tsp. ground cinnamon
--1/4 c. dark brown sugar
--2 tbsp. dark rum
--1/2 c. toasted chopped pecans

In a large food processor, combine all ingredients except the pecans (you're going to use those as a topping).  You'll need to pulse for quite awhile--don't worry if the bananas aren't blending immediately.  Depending on how frozen your bananas are, you'll need to pulse on high for about 5-7 minutes.  At first, you'll begin to see the bananas turning into tiny little chunks, and slowly they'll cream together until you have a very smooth dessert.

Serve and top with toasted pecans.

This recipe makes about 4 c. of of vegan banana ice cream.  If you can't finish it all at once, you can refreeze it for later.  

Butternut Squash Soup

Everyone thinks they have a great recipe for butternut squash soup, and various versions adorn winter menus everywhere.  The recipe I'm about to give you is the best one.  I tried this butternut squash soup for the first time almost ten years ago now, when my best friend's stepfather made it for Thanksgiving dinner in upstate New York.  I've been told it was an adaptation from a New York Times cookbook, but I've never found this precise recipe there.

It's something delicious and special, and it's actually pretty easy to make.  You'll never try another recipe.

I mentioned that this soup often makes me think of a wintry Thanksgiving I spent many years back.  While the holiday food season is over, its music doesn't need to be.  Here's Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong singing "Autumn in New York."

Ingredients:
--1 large butternut squash
--1 small yellow onion, coarsely chopped
--2 carrots, peeled and chopped
--1 clove garlic
--2-3 tsp. extra virgin olive oil
--1 tbsp. salt + a little extra to taste
--1-2 tsp. pepper
--2 tsp. ground nutmeg
--about 48 oz. chicken stock, or 1 1/2 cartons (you can substitute veggie stock if you're making this a vegetarian recipe)
--2 c. half and half, or heavy cream

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Slice butternut squash in half and scoop out seeds and filling.  Using a pastry brush or your hands, coat the flesh with extra virgin olive oil.  Fill the seed "holes" in the squash with the chopped carrots, onions, and lone garlic clove.  It's okay if they overflow a little bit.  Lightly salt the flesh of the squash, and place in the oven on a parchment-lined baking sheet.  Roast for about one hour, or until the squash and the veggies inside are quite soft.

Scoop the veggies into a large stock pot and add the chicken stock.  Simmer on low.  Now scoop out the squash--the skin should peel back very easily, and you should be able to remove almost all of the "meat."  Place it in the stockpot.

Sprinkle salt, pepper, and nutmeg into the pot.  Using an immersion blender, emulsify those ingredients.  Add the half and half or cream, and blend just a bit more.  Serve warm with a sprig or two of fresh thyme.

Chelsea Sticky Buns

Cinnamon buns on a snowy Sunday morning.  What could make for a better breakfast?  Of course, these flaky rolls are also a delightful dessert.  I had the idea for these miniature sticky buns after (jealously) watching Ina Garten stroll through London markets.  I've adapted her recipe here for some even sweeter, stickier buns.

These are best when they're still just a bit warm from the oven.  If you want to make them ahead of time, I recommend rolling and filling the dough, and refrigerating it until you're ready to slice and bake.  You'll also need a miniature non-stick muffin pan (but shouldn't you have one of these in your kitchen anyway?).  

I can't believe I haven't used this song yet, but it turns out I haven't: Neil Young's "Cinnamon Girl."  Here it is, to go along with some very cinnamon-y Chelsea sticky buns.

Ingredients:
(*Adapted from Ina Garten's Holiday Sticky Buns)

For the buns:
--1 package (2 sheets) frozen puff pastry dough, dethawed overnight in the fridge 
--1/2 c. dark brown sugar
--1 tsp. cinnamon
--1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
--1/2 to 1 c. coarsely chopped pecans (amount can vary depending on your love of pecans)

For the filling:
--1/3 c. dark brown sugar
--1/3 c. turbinado sugar
--1/3 c. very finely chopped pecans (almost dusted)
--1 tbsp. cinnamon
--1/2 tsp. nutmeg
--1/2 tsp. cloves
--1/2 tsp. allspice
--1/2 stick butter, melted

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  

Start with the "buns" ingredients.  In a large bowl, combine the brown sugar, cinnamon, and butter.  You'll want to beat it until the sugar and spice are incorporated fully into the butter, making a sort of brown sugar butter (by the way, this makes an excellent topping, on its own, for muffins and breads).  Spoon the butter evenly into the bottoms of the miniature muffin cups, filling them about 1/3 of the way full.  Distribute the coarsely chopped pecans on top of the butter in each of the 24 miniature muffin cups and set aside.  The butter will begin to melt, but that's OK.  

Now for the "filling."  In a bowl, mix the sugars, spices, and pecans and set aside for just a moment.  On a lightly floured surface, roll out the puff pastry dough.  You'll have two sheets, so you'll end up doing this twice.  Using a pastry brush, paint about 1/2 of your melted butter across the pastry dough.  Sprinkle about 1/2 of your sugar and spice mixture evenly across the dough.  Now, you'll want to very carefully roll it up using the longer edge.  In other words, you want to have a longer, rather than a shorter, roll.  Once you've rolled it up, pinch the ends closed and place the dough roll seam-side down.  Using a serrated-edged knife, carefully cut the dough roll into twelve equal pieces.  Place these on top of the butter/pecan mixture in your miniature muffin tins and repeat until all muffin cups are filled.  

Bake for about 20 minutes, or just until the rolls have puffed up and are firm to the touch (you'll know when you see them!).  Allow them to cool down for just a few minutes, and then flip the muffins upside down one at a time onto parchment paper--your bottoms are now your tops, and you've got sticky buns with a gooey, sugary topping.  Remove any remaining butter topping from the muffin cups and add it to your buns.  Let them cool just a bit longer, and then dig in!

Snickerdoodles

When we'd travel to my grandmother's house for the holidays, she'd always have snickerdoodles waiting for us (along with extras to take on the drive home).  So, while these aren't holiday cookies per se, they'll always be Christmas cookies to me.

Snickerdoodles are fluffy and sweet.  I love soft cookies, so not much can beat a cinnamon-and-sugar snickerdoodle hot out of the oven.  I've adapted the recipe from Smitten Kitchen, but there are a lot of great recipes out there for these cookies.

I have to admit, in addition to sweets, I love Christmas music.  Here is John Fahey's "Auld Lang Syne," from his 1968 Christmas album, The New Possibility.

Ingredients:
--2 3/4 c. all-purpose flour
--2 tsp. cream of tartar
--1 tsp. baking soda
--2 sticks salted butter, softened
--3 eggs
--1 1/2 c. granulated sugar, + 1/2 c. granulated sugar for rolling
--2 tbsp. ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

In a large bowl, combine butter, 1 1/2 c. sugar, and eggs on medium speed until fluffy (about 3 minutes).  In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cream of tartar, and baking soda.  Slowly add to the wet mixture until combined.  Scrape dough into wax paper and chill for about an hour.

In a small bowl, combine remaining sugar and cinnamon.  Once dough has chilled, shape into 1" balls and roll thoroughly in the mixture of cinnamon and sugar.  Place at least 2" apart on a parchment-lined baking sheet (these will seriously expand in the oven).  Bake for about 8-10 minutes, or just until the cookies are cracking.  If they're golden-colored on top, they're overcooked.

Vanilla Rum Shortbread Cookies

If you read this blog with any regularity, you might have noticed that I have an incurable sweet tooth.  The holiday season gives me a marvelous excuse to make (and devour) a new dessert almost every day.  I love shortbread, and I've been trying to find a recipe that I'm really crazy about.  While I've made some shortbread recipes that are yummy (like my winter white amaretto shortbread), lately I've been craving a shortbread that's especially flaky and crisp.  This recipe is exactly that.

You can make this into any shape you'd like, of course.  I selected some snowflake cookie cutters to accompany the wintry weather.  I tried to introduce you to the Durutti Column's music in previous posts, but it turns out that some of their cold-weather tracks are even more beautiful than I could imagine.  Here is their haunting "Snowflakes," to match the aesthetics of these shortbread cookies.

Ingredients:
--2 sticks + 6 tbsp. unsalted butter (keep this very cold like you would for a pie crust)
--2 tbsp. dark rum
--1 tbsp. vanilla
--1 c. turbinado sugar
--1 c. cornstarch
--2 c. all-purpose flour, + extra for rolling
--1 tsp. salt
--decorative sugar crystals

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

In a large bowl, sift flour, cornstarch, and salt.  Using a food processor or using a pastry cutter, add butter, sugar, vanilla, and rum.  If you're using a food processor, pulse the ingredients until they begin to form a ball, just like a pie crust.  (If you're using a pastry cutter, it'll take a little more time, but cut the ingredients until a dry, crumbly dough begins to form.)

Separate the dough into quarters.  On a large floured surface, shape the first dough quarter into a ball and roll out until it's about 1/4 to 1/2" thick.  Using a floured cookie cutter, cut any shapes you like.  Repeat with remaining dough, incorporating the scraps as you go.  (You'll end up with about 3 dozen cookies or so, depending on the size of your cookie cutter, when all is said and done.)

Arrange the cookies about 1/2" apart on a parchment-lined baking sheet.  Sprinkle with decorative sugar crystals (I used silver and gold).  

Bake at 325 degrees F for approximately 12-14 minutes, or just until the cookie edges are ever so slightly golden.  If the tops become golden, they're overdone.  Remove from oven and allow to cool.  And these look great in holiday gift bags!